Twenty Scenes
by Military Mechanic
Summary: Every word has a meaning attached to it. Every sentence, a memory. Sometimes, these are just small things. A laugh, a smile, a touch. Sometimes, they're more - a risk taken, a battle fought, a wound recieved. This? This is a chronicle of twenty of them, all pertaining to Sanji.


A/N: So, this is another part of my self-imposed challenge. Eventually, I'll get one of these written for everybody. xD Zolo's and Usopp's are already up, and are entitled Twenty Moments and Twenty Words. Check those out too, please!

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1. Book - It's far more worn then people would expect, that leather-bound cookbook that sits there, on the very back of Sanji's shelf - unimposing and simple, yet the pages are well-turned and the spine is starting to crack.

2. Cool - The wind from the autumn island has turned the air about their ship cool, but not enough to haul out the heavy jackets from the back of the closet - yet Usopp, wrapped heavily in bandages and sitting at the edge of the ship, has started to shiver: so Sanji shrugs off his jacket, drapes it across the younger mans shoulders, and disappears to the kitchen.

3. Cold - It's cold here, Sanji thinks to himself, clenching down on the barely smoking ciggarette between his lips, then he runs a hand roughly through his hair, pulls his coat tighter around him, and once more begins his treck.

4. Young - Sanji would have given anything to have a normal child-hood, with a mother and father that cared and a life befitting a young boy that aspired to be a chef.

5. Wrong - There's something wrong here, Sanji realizes, because the Sunny is far too quiet and that mist is moving way too fast to be normal and _just where had everyone else gone_?

6. Gentle - The door is closed, and so are Sanji's eyes; hands moving gracefully across the counter, cutting and dicing and slicing everything that he can reach, and hips swaying as he did, a gentle hum thrumming from his throat.

7. Last - Finally, two years have passed; finally, the last clock has chimed; finally, Sanji can leave this island and these clothes and these people and return to his ship, his home, his family.

8. One - Once, there was only one sea and it went by the name of All Blue, this sea, this piece of history turned fantasy, vanished years ago - and it is Sanji who swears to find it one day.

9. Thousand - Thousand of words, all written in the hasty scrawl of someone with too much to do and not enough time, line the pages of Sanji's notebook, the one that he keeps in his bedroom and not the kitchen, where he jots down every half-baked recipe that floats into his mind.

10. King - King of the Pirates - it's a speculative title, something created by Roger himself, yet it's one that Sanji knows his captain will earn; and he is damned and determined to be that Pirate Kings chef.

11. Friendship - It's not something that Sanji thought about much when he was younger, having friends that is; his mind was too focused on living and fighting and finding food, finding help, getting better and stronger and showing that damned old man of his.

12. Fight - The other members of the Straw Hats think they're nuts, Sanji knows, when he and Zolo start to fight each other - but they don't understand that both men _need_ that rush, that most days it's all that keeps them sane.

13. Group - The group of marines are closing in on them now, Sanji and Nami that is, getting closer with their swords drawn, their guns raised - and then a shot is fired and Nami screams, but there isn't pain just blood, a lot of blood, and Sanji hits the ground for a moment, then pushes himself up with a groan and flings himself foreward into the fray.

14. Bruise - Dark purples frame his eyes, Sanji realizes with a start one morning, and right afterwards he realizes that his skin has gotten very pale, too pale and too clammy and when was the last time that he slept again?

15. Regret - Once, Sanji regretted living that day, during the storm that left him stranded; he felt that it would be better to just die, and not rob the older man of his leg; now, he felt like it all happened for a reason, and that reason was to meet with Luffy and Zolo and all of the others.

16. Aim - Breath, jump, kick, duck, run, faster and faster and faster, so that his lungs burn and his chest aches and his muscles turn to goo, and then Sanji runs some more, falling into a crouch and taking aim, leg flying out to catch the marine in the side - he lands in a crouch, then takes a breath and jumps again.

17. Liar - "Liar!" screeches Sanji, and he doesn't know who he's talking to because it certainly isn't the newspaper clutched in his sweating hands, "You damn liars! They aren't dead, not yet! We still have another year!"

18. Mushrooms - Sanji finds it almost amusing, the way that neither Usopp nor Chopper will touch mushrooms, yet neither will ask for Sanji to leave them out of dishes.

19. Family - He doesn't remember them, his parents or his sister; he doesn't have pictures of them, his long dead family; all that Sanji has are the men around him, here on the Baratie.

20. Spiders - The sniper is the only one that knows and Sanji plans to keep it that way, so when a large, hair-coated spider makes its way into the kitchen one day, Sanji lets out a howled demand for Usopp to get in there.


End file.
